USA VC Update: Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen

You're in for a treat today - Another Square Enix classic will be available in the Wii Shop. Some might say it's one of their best games, but what is definitely a fact is that it's one of the rarest SNES games - Only about 25000 copies were released in the US, meaning the VC version will be much cheaper than actually finding the game.

Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen is the first game in the Ogre Battle series, a series of medieval strategy games which are quite in-depth. Between levels, you can manage your characters (And there's a ton of different ones to get!) and items, while the actual levels are somewhat similar to games like Fire Emblem, featuring turn-based gameplay. The game has a ton of stuff to do - There's multiple strategies to win each level, you can try to recruit special characters and there's a variety of different endings, meaning you'll keep coming back for more. Our review will be available within the next few days!

No extra C64 games just yet, but one of the most wanted Square Enix games is available at last! On WiiWare this week you can grab one new title too - The mysterious Family & Friends Party.

I expected Clayfighter and C64 games but this is much better. I haven't played this and wouldn't download it when it comes here if it ever does - I'm just no good at strategy games. But I do know its a great game and strategy minded gamers love it. Have fun.

Solid VC release. Looking forward to playing through Ogre Battle in its entirety. I tried it out only a little when I was younger and I didn't come away dazzled, by any means, but my tastes for strategy games have certainly matured greatly since then. Can't wait to see what the fuss has been about all these years.

Woah nice surprise this morning, I wasn't expecting Ogre Battle this soon! Definitely worth checking out for every strategy fans out threre, but keep in mind the gameplay is not as complex as Final Fantasy Tactics or even Tactics Ogre and may seem rather static to some.

I've never played this game (not surprising, given its rarity), but I'll probably give it a go on VC. At least show them support so they get more classics out, right? Still waiting for all those Enix/Quintet masterpieces...

Another great week! I really hope this gets released in Europe. Although I also get a feeling it will be one of those games that stays exclusive in NA.Consdiering Europe has never got an Ogre battle game I think you may be right. In Hanabai Festival we hope...

It's an Enix classic or a Square Enix classic, but it's not a Square classic.

I wish I hadn't sold my complete SNES version. At least it helped pay for my education...

Oh another thing... the levels don't play like Fire Emblem at all. This isn't a turn-based game. There's no grid. You deploy units on a map, select destinations, and they move in real time until they come into contact with enemies. Then a mini sort of traditional RPG fight takes place. But this is not a traditional turn-based, gird-based tactical RPG by any means.

this is one of the greatest real time strategy rpg games ever made i love the game even still have the guide now i need to get the points for it and here i was saving 800 points for a month hoping the game came out

I recently got into stragety games after playing the two Shining force games on VC. I've always liked RPG's but this type is kinda new to me. Is Ogre Battle anything like Shining force? If so I may just give it a try. Since it's so rare this would be the best chance to own it.

Back in the day, at times this game reached $80 or more at Funcoland... used! This is a great game, and (finally) a AAA title definitely worth the download. Of course it is a bit of a niche title, but it's good enough that I'd encourage even those who are like-warm on the genre to give it a chance.

I was about to download it but I checked the compatible controllers just to be sure, and it said you have to have the classic... which is strange, all the other SNES games I got work with my gamecube controllers...

so before I waste 800 points has anyone tried it with gamecube controllers????

Yeah it just kind of made me nervous, usually both controllers show up when you click on that box before you download. I checked other games and they showed the GameCube controller but not Ogre Battle.

I always find it weird how it seems that some titles that do amazing in Japan and still are amazing in America usually have barely any copies made in America. Just look at Panzer Dragoon Saga, probulay one of the best RPGs of all time, and yet it had only about 20,000 copies made for the West (somewhere around that amount). The result?The game goes for more than $200 on eBay, USED, and it's price continues to get higher.

Thanks, if I had a classic it would be no big deal, but I already have 5 perfectly good GameCube controllers so I don't feel the need to spring for one. If you could just post here again (or someone else), it would be much appreciated.

Yeah I tried playing D K country with a Gamecube controller.It was a total disaster. It's extremely awkward playing alot of SNES games with a gamecube controller. It works but it kinda ruins the gameplay.

Guys, if you have any fondness for real time strategy games get this!!! First it is by famed developer Quest- not square. And contrary to what is written above, it is NOT at all like Fire Emblem, it is not turn based, it is in real time. This is one of my all time favorite games released for the SNES. A true classic, don't miss it!!! FIGHT IT OUT!!!

Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen was distributed 25.000 copies in North America. It was caused by the fact Enix was planning to close their America publishing division sometime in the year.

Here is the proof:

According the digital press Rarity guide, Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen was release in the United States in April 1995.

Enix America Corporation only release one game after Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen that in the same year. It was called King Arthur & the Knights of Justice. It was even rarer than Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen.

King Arthur & the Knights of Justice was released in May 1995. King Arthur & the Knights of Justice had less copies released distributed than Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen.

There wasn't a published game from Enix America Corporation being released from May 1995 to the time it closed in November 1995 and there was no proof of a game being worked on during that time.

Enix had a difficult time to sell games in North America as publisher in including Soul Blazer.

So I went to download it and it says you must have the classic controller. This is the only SNES game that says that (I've downloaded a lot) so its either a mistake or they left the GameCube controller out for some reason.... I'm still going to wait until someone actually plugs their controller in and tries it

I was really hoping for an import week this week. Hopefully there will be one next week. We haven't had one in ages, and there's been some pretty cool-looking games that have been rated recently.

@PopeReal. Why don't you download the game, plug in a Gamecube controller yourself and see how it works?

@Link79. Yeah, GC controllers and SNES games don't mix well. I tried playing Super Mario World with one before and it was a complete disaster. It would work just fine if the the buttons were arranged better.

I'm going to get this and Onslaught! I played the cough cough rom... cough a while back and really enjoyed it. I hope they send over Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together and Ogre Battle 64 someday. Ogre is my favorite strategy rpg series...

@Link79: " I can't wait til they give us one single Commodore 64 game that just so happens to be garbage as well."

Seems we're getting C64 games that have already been released in Europe, and they've only gotten good games so far. The C64 library is so massive, I assume Commodore will focus on the popular, big sellers, rather than crap no one liked, so don't expect much garbage from that part.

@ Adamant and Ferret75Well I did like Last Ninja so as long as the Commodore releases are of that quality It wont be so bad. Every now and then we get weeks of nothing good on VC though so I'm sorta dreading the inevitable. I still think this one game a week stuff needs to stop. At least with two or more games there's a better chance of finding something for everyone.

PDS had a small print run because of the death of the Saturn in the US. Sega has been out of its mind ever since to not re-release it in some way, as lots of people have wanted it. As far as videogames go, good to great titles can pass by for the worst reasons.

In general, this is why I'm happy enough with Nintendo for some of that to be fixed.

And to the guys who are asking but getting no reply yet: this game is not turn-based. It's nothing like Shining Force, Fire Emblem, or Final Fantasy Tactics. It's still awesome though. It's just a very different kind of strategy game.

Are they serious? Maybe with 2000 extra blocks on my wii and half priced wii points would I buy this game. Awesome game when it game out, but has definitely lost its appeal over the years. Better to spend your $8 on some grain alcohol to make you forget that they released this game above anything else.

Well, while Mega Wolf here is going blind on grain alcohol, I'll be whipping out the ol plastic and cha chinging my way to Ogre Battle!!

This is a marvelous release and about as good as a one game release week can get. And for those people ready to complain about on-game-week complainers, the reason there's so little on-game-week complaints is double-fold, first we're in the afterglow/honeymoon phase from the new C64 availability in NA, and second this game is well known and gnerally very well regarded.

I'm mildly disappointed about the lack of any C64 games for this week, even in he midst of a great SNES title, I repeat SNES title.

If we don't get a more steady stream of C64 games, we'll take quite a while just to get our hands on the onese EU is already playing. I mean I'd rather have top notch SNES games, but why does it have to be one or the other, eh? EHHHHHHH? (heh, "Strike Force Wisconsin".......sorry random self amusement)

I hope Nintendo has some multi-VC-game release weeks coming down the pipe, when they finally fall off of this streak of excellent games they've been releasing.

But for now I'll hungerly seize upon the latest shiny shiny preccccccious!

And to those who were wondering, the Gamecube controller does work with Ogre Battle despite it mentioning only the Classic controller. I tried my Gamecube controller, my Super Famicom Classic Controller, and my regular Classic Controller and they all worked just fine.

Anyone predicting SSB64 will come out next week on March 9th, or if its a long wait, maybe on April 27th?! Makes perfect sense to be... I think we'd be dissapointed if NOA wasn't smart enough to let us have SSB64 on a SSB date we all personally know that's etched in time and our memories!

I think I've figured out NOAs plans for the next two months of VC releases, including the likely release date for Super Smash Bros. Currently there are 284 games on the North American service. That's 16 titles away from the big 300. If NOA releases C64 games in bunches of 3 every other week, as I'm predicting they will, while releasing 1 game in the weeks between, we will reach the 300th VC title on April 27th, the 10th anniversary of the North American launch of the original Super Smash Bros. Nintendo knows how much we want this game and it makes perfect sense for it to not only represent a milestone in game releases, but to be released on the games 10th birthday. Here's a chart:

I think you have a good release schedule Rapadash, but I think Alex Kidd Lost Starrs or Pulseman might sneak in as well. I do hope Clayfighter arrives to the US. Not everyone hates it and back when it was released it got pretty decent reviews. Honestly I know alot of people hate it but I will download it for nostagia:) Was Ogre Battle named after a Queen song? I saw that in another post

Edit: another reason I like Rapadash schedule is because there would be 12 C64 games added by the end of April. Not bad I could handle that I think

Personally, I would have been pissed that SSB would be No.300 instead of Earthbound, but now that it looks like that's not coming to VC, I guess I'll settle for it, even though I have the cartridge and won't D-L it.@Rapadash6-Interesting time table, but I can't see Ninty giving us so many 4 game weeks (if you include Wiiware) Hopefully, we won't (?!?!) because then SSB won't be No. 300 and we'll get that on 4/27 and something ELSE amazing for No.300. (Take your pick, maybe Majora's Mask or something...)

I was hoping for Soulblazer but instead we got Ogre Battle. I'm surprised I would have expected Soulblazer to be the next Enix release after ActRaiser. Well I hope this means we're definitely getting Ogre Battle 64 sometime soon. I'm still waiting for Earthbound too but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

All 3 of you have very nice interesting points ov views on the subject!

I just hope Nintendo isn't too unpredictable, and is either that generious to give us a C64 library that fast... or hopes to get SSb64 out there faster for us die hard fans who've been waiting years for it to come out!!

Believe me... I've had my share of people whinning before about where's the N64 games?!!

I havn't realized that #300 was that close. Maybe they could be bluffing and pull out a miracle with Earthbound. Anyway, if the gamehas already been released, where were the lawsuits then, how about it. I say lets try get. I think that it would be a great success. Otherwise I hope that #300 rocks none the less.

Hey guys, I have a question for all of the more knowledgable people here. When a game that had a limited release as a cart is rereleased on the VC I always hear someone saying that this game or that game sells for so much on ebay because it is a wanted game but very rare.

Could someone make a list of the games that people want the most/sell for the most/ that would be the most welcome on VC to players that don't want to shell out that much cash.

Like:1.game X - sells for $300 on ebay and is the most wanted2. Game Y - Sells for $200 and comes next.

or game x was limited to 1000 carts, and game y only had 1500 carts..etc. I really don't know the best list for this type of thing.

I ask because some of the game names you guys throw around I have not even heard of, and I have played every system since my texas instruments carts I played in 1980. I think that since I lived in a rural place I may have missed out on some good games, that never saw release in my neighborhood, because of limited realease or whatever.

Since were talking about some old games. I liked that hologram thing sega was doing in the arcades years ago. It had some sphere which made holograms in the center of the set up to play games. With technology nowadays, I don't know why this type of gaming has not resurfaced. For $600 the game better be made of gold. Also, I hope Resident Evil 5 will be out for Christmas for the Wii.

@ Adamant - Limited release numbers, a small following within an already small demographic (rpgs were still a niche game at the time) and an overall lack of coverage of the game. There were some print ads, but certainly nothing on TV that I ever saw. American gamers had only been spoon-fed a select few rpgs at the time, and strategy games were more the realm of pc gamers.